It’s time to see whether the bold changes coach Mike McCarthy orchestrated three months ago on his offensive line will work.

With the NFL-required two days of nonpadded practices to open training camp completed on Saturday, the Green Bay Packers will don the pads Sunday morning for the first time since January. Nothing comes closer to simulating live game action, especially for linemen, than padded practices.

So all eyes will be on tackle Bryan Bulaga and guard Josh Sitton, who moved to the left side from the right; right guard T.J. Lang, who flipped sides with Sitton; and Marshall Newhouse and Don Barclay, the two competitors for Bulaga’s old right tackle job.

Throughout the offseason and during the first two days of camp, when practices are in shorts and helmets, contact is minimal, especially in the trenches. The one-on-one pass blocking/pass rushing drills look little different than games of patty-cake.

“You get a lot of work in the offseason, OTAs and when you’re practicing,” Sitton said Saturday. “But it’s really about the pads and the live bullets flying at you when you see how you’re going to really do. That’s what we do, we play games in pads. I think that will be the start of it.”

But, Sitton cautioned, it’s only the beginning.

If Clay Matthews blows by Bulaga or if B.J. Raji smokes Sitton or Lang during today’s drills, that might not necessarily be a sign of a failed experiment.

“I think it will take a week or two into training camp to be feeling close to 100 percent over there,” Sitton said.

When the changes were introduced, Bulaga, who last played left tackle during his final two seasons at the University of Iowa in 2008 and 2009, likened it to a left-handed batter hitting from the right side for the first time.

That was nearly three months ago.

These days, it’s not nearly as foreign to him.

“I’m more comfortable with it,” Bulaga said. “There’s going to be times where to me it looks really bad and it doesn’t feel right, but it’s just working through that, seeing it on film, understanding what you’re doing wrong and then just correcting it. Repetition’s only going to help. It’s just a process and I think any guy that made the switch on this line is going to say the same thing. Repetition is going to make you better. It’s not always going to look pretty right away right now, and I don’t think that’s the expectations from any of the guys or the coaches that it’s going to look perfect right now, but it’s a process.”

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Though McCarthy insisted snap counts for the starters have been on par with years past, it appeared that during Saturday’s practice at least part of the No. 1 line took an extra snap during each team period beyond the usual first four with starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The pattern on Saturday was this: the starting unit of Bulaga, Sitton, center Evan Dietrich-Smith, Lang and Newhouse took the first three snaps. On the fourth snap, Barclay replaced Newhouse at right tackle.

When Rodgers gave way to backup quarterback Graham Harrell on the fifth play, Barclay moved to center and Newhouse came back at right tackle. In years past, the backup quarterbacks rarely got a snap with the top offensive line.

“The offensive line is always an ongoing rotation as far as who gets what reps for each practice,” McCarthy said.

In addition to adjusting to the changes, there’s still the task of identifying a right tackle. In addition to Newhouse and Barclay, the Packers may give rookie fourth-round pick David Bakhtiari a turn there.

But for now, it appears it’s Newhouse’s job to lose. McCarthy repeatedly has insisted the changes weren’t the result of Newhouse’s shaky play on the left side the last two seasons, when he combined to allow 24½ sacks in 32 games, including playoffs. And when Newhouse was asked Saturday what aspect of his game needed the most improvement, his answer had nothing to do with pass protection.

“Definitely my run blocking,” Newhouse said. “I think I was hesitant a lot in the running game. I was concerned about giving up a big play that it kept me from selling out. I know that when I sell out, I can be a good lineman. My emphasis was letting that stuff go, put it all out there and not be afraid to make a mistake.”

McCarthy doesn’t allow live tackling to the ground during training camp, so the real data on the line changes probably won’t be collected until the preseason games.

“I think I’d be an idiot to say I’m 100 percent confident (that the changes will work),” Sitton said. “There’s always a tiny bit of doubt. But I think with the type of guys that we have, we all work our (expletive) off, and we’ve taken it in stride, and we’ve really open to the change and are really behind it.”